(funky music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

We talked about small towns the last week and we're just gonna continue this week.

They are the backbone of America.

And they're the backbone of America because of the great people that make them up.

Today we're talking with Jim and Laura Sniff from Chillicothe.

Welcome back, guys.

- Thank you.

Thanks for having us again.

- It's almost like you didn't leave.

- I know.

(chuckling) - Seems just like five minutes ago.

- Yeah, it does!

We had you on last week and I just, we did not get to everything because you guys are doing so much.

You're improving communities so much that there was just a lot to talk about.

So it's kind of your fault and not mine.

- Okay, we'll take the blame.

(chuckling) Sorry, ha, ha!

- You guys, you are the founders of The Picket Fence Foundation.

And the Blue Ridge Community Farm, right?

- Right.

- So we went over the farm last time, but just as kind of a quick recap, so basically you do have a child with special needs and knowing that, you have this farm and there was a teacher that said, hey, can we bring the special needs kids out?

And that's how it started.

How many years have you been doing that?

- 22.

- 22.

- 22 years.

- Yup.

- Did you ever think it was gonna get this big?

- No, we just kept going.

And people enjoy it so much.

And there are not a lot of places, when you have a class that has, you know, people in it that have pretty significant disabilities, there's not a lot of places in the public where the staff feel comfortable to take that class for a field trip.

And at the farm they know that we're parents of a young man with autism.

We've been through a lot.

We've seen everything.

And so they know that when they come to the farm they can just relax.

They can be themselves.

- Be themselves, yeah.

- And they can just, it's judgment free.

They just come and enjoy themselves.

And so we welcome over 1,000 people from May to October, never a charge.

From over 50 different organizations and school districts in the area.

- How big of a geographical area?

- It's about 245 acres.

Oh, you mean for the... - For the people that come in.

- Yeah, it's probably a 50 mile radius around Peoria.

- We've had Morton, La Salle, Peru.

- Yeah, we've had people from up around there, Granville.

I had a young lady a few years ago that came down.

West of Peoria.

Yeah, so probably about a 50 mile radius.

- Yeah, pretty good footprint.

- Mm-hm.

- All right, what we didn't get to last show was the Picket Fence Foundation.

All right, tell me the original thought.

How did it get started?

- Well, as our son Jimmy got older, we started really realizing quickly that there's not a lot of jobs for adults with disabilities.

Especially, they are in school until right before they turn 22 and then after that everything kind of falls into this abyss.

- Unemployment is about 80%.

- Yeah, it's terrible.

- For adults with disabilities.

- Yeah.

And so, yeah?

- Sorry, it's not because they don't wanna work.

- Oh no, no.

- There's just not the opportunity out there.

- Gotcha, okay.

- Not a lot of opportunities and we have, through our family business, we have apartment rentals and that type of thing.

And we have some apartments in Chillicothe and started thinking about, maybe we could hire people at the farm.

And then we would turn the apartments into housing one day.

Well, as we started thinking about that and just kind of exploring it and researching, Picket Fence came up for sale.

It's right behind our apartments.

It's about a one block business.

There's a huge parking lot.

- A one block business?

- Yeah, it's about one block, right?

- It's about a square city block.

- A square city block.

- Size-wise.

- It's big.

- It comprises, yeah.

- And it's in the town of Chillicothe.

It's a full service garden center.

There's a gift shop and then there's a full service florist.

So they do all that.

And it would take two hours to tell you the whole story, but in a nutshell we found out that it was for sale and at first when it was presented to us that it was for sale, we were both kind of like, absolutely not, that's crazy.

But then we started-- - [Rob] You guys kind of do crazy though, don't ya?

- Yeah, a little bit.

- Yeah, yeah.

We started thinking about, well what if we could take a business and make it a nonprofit and hire people there with disabilities.

Like, give them job opportunities.

- And it was a well established business already.

Originally it was built as a car dealership.

- Mm-hm.

- And then the car dealership moved out.

A guy named Jim Peters and his family, Peters Floral, had it for many years.

Then they sold it to the Ferris family.

And some of their siblings, they operated it for 14 years.

So it was very well established, very well known local and regional business.

And that helped a lot in our decision to be able to sort of step into that and operate it, but operate it on a different level as a nonprofit hiring special needs adults.

- Yeah.

And so we approached the owner, who one of them, her daughter was our son's Special Olympics coach in high school.

So I kind of knew 'em.

And we presented this, our idea, and they were all for us trying to make it happen.

We followed 'em around for about a year while we were raising funds.

And it was during COVID.

And we really say, we don't own the business at all.

The community, we raised funds in the community.

The community owns it.

We purchased it three years ago this August and made it a nonprofit.

We found a place, an attorney up in Chicago that helped us with the paperwork.

We were told, you can't do that.

You can't do that, you can't do that.

- [Rob] Why not?

- How are you gonna do that?

How are you gonna take a profitable business and make it into a nonprofit?

I mean everybody, there were all these no, no, no, nos.

- [Rob] Those people.

The naysayers, yeah.

- The road blockers, yeah.

- We don't listen to that.

So.

- We don't like road blockers.

- We don't like road blockers.

So we made it happen.

And today we have 16.

I think we're at 16.

15, 16 adults with disabilities working there, making paychecks just like everybody else.

The first person that we hired, just to give you an idea how important it is, he had never been paid for a job.

He was still in high school.

He had jobs but they were internships because of his disability.

Nobody paid him.

And when we said, hey, we're gonna pay you.

We gotta go get the paperwork.

His teacher, who was sitting next to him said, they're gonna, do you know where they're going to get paperwork?

And he's like, oh, so I can work here.

And she said, no, they're gonna pay you.

You're gonna get a paycheck.

And he flew up off of his chair and was just jumping and down.

And he kept saying, "They're gonna pay me!"

"They're gonna pay me!"

"I'm gonna get a paycheck!"

And then we said, "Yes."

And he stopped and he looked at us and he goes, "Do you have an employee of the month?"

(chuckling) And he just graduated off into a full-time position in Peoria now at another business.

- Wonderful family, great kid.

- Yeah, just, it's so cool.

- Exciting for him to see that happen.

We miss him.

- We miss him a lot, yeah but.

- He said he'll come back and volunteer for us.

- Yeah!

Yeah.

- So, you have people with special needs that are selling products?

- Yeah, so in the gift shop we made, it's probably about at least a quarter of the gift shop is called the ability marketplace.

And what we've seen is that since there aren't a lot of jobs for adults with disabilities, their parents or family members are making businesses.

They're coming up with business.

Like, what can my child do?

How can I celebrate their ability?

And that's what we do at Picket Fence.

So we're finding all these businesses across the country where folks with disabilities are making products, good quality, amazing quality products.

And we're like, let's sell 'em.

So, can I show you some?

Can I show you some?

- Can we start with the...?

- Yeah!

- Yeah, let's start with these.

All right, so what have we got here?

- Okay, so those are mittens that are made from sweaters from Goodwill.

- From sweaters?

- From sweaters, yup.

- I better not, I'd stretch 'em out.

- No, you can put your hand in there.

They stretch.

- I'd stretch that bad boy out.

Ha, ha!

- But, so they're Ryan's Mittens.

Ryan has autism.

Him and his mom, they go thrift shopping.

They find sweaters.

He cuts the pattern out and then she sows 'em.

And we sell every winter, we sell over 100 pairs of those in our gift shop.

- They're, I mean, they're really nice.

- Mm-hm, they're really nice.

- Better than that crap you get at Walmart.

You know what I'm saying?

- Oh, they're so nice.

They're so well made.

- Yeah.

- Yup.

- And they're a wonderful local family too.

- Yeah, they're awesome.

Awesome people.

- Okay, and what do we have here?

- That's just one picture from a young man who is from Florida.

He's 15 years old and he has autism.

And is nonverbal.

- [Rob] Is this him?

- [Laura] Uh-huh, that's him.

We've got another picture of his of John Lennon that he drew that's amazing.

- [Rob] Really?

- Another one of Jesus, another one of Mary.

Just an unbelievable talent, yeah.

- If someone said, here, I'm gonna give you a month to paint something beautiful, I couldn't paint that.

- Yeah, us either.

- Now this is cool.

- So at Picket Fence we've started a group called the Picket Fence weavers.

And we have a lady who volunteers her time.

She bought all of these looms.

- [Rob] I feel like "Price is Right."

- [Laura] Yes, I know.

You're doing a great job.

You're hired!

- [Rob] Can you do the music?

♪ Da, da, da♪ This is, I mean, it's heavy.

- So that's a rug that's made by Chip who is one of our weavers.

And so they are next door to Picket Fence in the shopping center.

- What do you mean weavers?

Do they actually weave this?

- Yeah, on those huge looms.

The real big ones.

- We've got about half a dozen looms.

Maybe seven or eight.

A couple of table top, but most of them are big, full-sized looms.

- My gosh!

- And Jenny instructs the kids and just does an amazing job teaching them.

And some of the kids that are doing this, you'd swear this is the last thing they would be excited about.

- Oh my gosh, they're amazing.

- But they come in and they give it a try and they love it and they're hooked on it.

- They'll be at our concert series too, on the farm.

So, you can see that.

- Years ago we interviewed a guy in North Dakota and he owned a popcorn factory, Colorado Jack's.

It's mainly out there.

Same situation.

Has a son who has special needs.

And they created a packing facility just for special needs people.

- That's great.

- And it was a very, I would think monotonous, right?

It was just that same action again and again.

And he's like, well, they actually prefer that.

- Some people like that.

- They thrive more at that.

Is that kind of what you find?

- Somewhat.

And then what's nice about Picket Fence is that, you know, a lot of times adults with disabilities, their options are food service or janitorial, right?

And so at Picket Fence they have different options for employment.

There's our garden center where they're learning about plants and they're learning about planting.

And then this right here.

- [Rob] Which one?

- This little, this guy here.

So, everybody wants to be a florist.

Wants to be a floral designer.

And we have a full service floral department, you know.

We do weddings and funerals and birthdays and anniversaries.

And we deliver all over Peoria.

Anyway, these are called grab and grow bouquets.

And they're $10 each.

And they allow our junior associates, who are our folks with disabilities, a chance to learn how to design a floral arrangement on a smaller scale.

And we sell so many of these.

Each one has a tag on it.

This one says, "Thank you for your support."

Steve made this.

They make the pics in 'em.

They learn how to position to flowers.

And these are Oui Yogurt jars that are spray painted.

So if anyone has Oui Yogurt jars, we take them.

- Is that glass or plastic?

- Yeah, it's glass, yeah.

- Oh, I didn't know they sold yogurt in glasses.

- Yeah.

- All right, well let's just keep going.

We've got uh... - We have-- - This is chick stuff, isn't it?

- Yep.

- Yeah.

- You could try the head band if you want.

- You can put it on your beard.

- You'll be very pretty.

- Well, I don't want to stretch it out.

- Use the scrunchie on your beard there.

- Somebody did make this, right?

- Yeah.

So, that's Two Sisters and a Scrunchie.

And you could totally do it.

- Well, we'll try it.

- [Laura] There you go.

- This is a good look for me.

- [Laura] There you go!

(Laura wheezing) Perfect.

- [Jim] That's it.

- [Laura] I gotta get a picture of that.

We'll put up in the shop.

- Believe me, we're getting enough of it.

- The girls are going to be very happy to see you sporting that.

- They're very happy to see.

See, it's a new thing.

Two Sisters and a Scrunchie.

They're from Chillicothe.

This guy here, this is made from T-shirts.

A young lady with autism weaves it into a dog toy.

And we have cat toys, too.

- [Rob] That's pretty, that's sturdy.

- Mm-hm.

- My miserable dog would even have a tough time with that one.

I've been smelling this for two weeks.

- So this is Smelly Ellie Candles.

They're from Bloomington normal.

- That's fantastic.

- And Austin has autism.

I love the tag because it says, "Made with love and grumbling."

You know?

That's one of his top sellers.

It's called Monkey Farts.

- Monkey Farts.

- And it smells like bananas, of course.

Right?

(chuckling) - Monkey Farts.

- Yes.

- I would buy it just for that.

- Right?

- Yeah.

- High quality gifts.

- High quality, yeah.

- At an inexpensive price.

- It does smell good.

Okay, what have we got here?

- That is a, there's a workshop for adults in Galena, Illinois.

A lot of people like traveling up there.

And it's a fire starter.

So they put those together with shredded paper and toilet paper rolls and some other things and then you can just pop that in your fire to get it going.

- Then, let's do this one first.

- So, a lot of high school life skills classes are making products to make funds for their class and to teach their students skills, work skills.

And so that's from IVC High School.

They're greeting cards and we sell tons of them.

All different kinds.

- I bet.

Because if you ever go there, you should just literally buy 20 happy birthdays and 20 whatever, because whenever you need a card you don't have one.

- Yeah, and it's purposeful shopping.

So not only are you helping this organization, but you're also helping Picket Fence and all the people we employ.

- I get what you're saying.

- So it's kinda cool.

- Screw Hallmark.

- Yeah.

(chuckling) - All right, these are pretty special too.

- Yeah, those are done by our son, Jimmy.

He worked with a wonderful art therapist, Dory.

- [Rob] It's good!

- She taught him how to paint.

The first one there, it's kind of a cute story.

- [Rob] Which one, this one?

- The one with the zebra, yeah.

That was his very first painting.

And at the very end of the painting session Dory would say, "Okay Jimmy, what do you want to call it?"

And he said, "There's a zebra hiding there."

And she looked at him and she said, "Where's the zebra?"

And he goes, "It's hiding."

(laughing) So on the note card we had to put the zebra on there.

- You gotta be really proud when you see these.

- Yeah.

Yeah, we are.

- That's, again, the talent.

Because I'll be the first to admit.

You know, sometimes you see special needs and I would never expect this level of product and talent to come from that.

And here you guys are making sure that the world knows that it's there.

- Absolutely, yup.

- Yeah, we have a young lady that does quilts from Florida.

- Oh my gosh, just, yeah.

- With Down Syndrome.

And she's amazing, amazing.

There's a young lady that does picture frames.

That paints them from Chicago.

So there's a lot of gifts there that truly are remarkable.

And they all have the story behind them, too.

Which makes, as Laura mentioned, the purposeful shopping so much more important.

- So, the people that make these.

- Mm-hm?

- Do they ever get to see them being sold?

- Oh, I don't know if they've ever.

I don't know if anyone's ever been in the shop when someone has actually purchased.

But they are so excited about their displays and where they are in the shop.

They have the most prominent position when you walk right in the gift shop.

That's the Ability Marketplace.

One young man from California, they make soaps.

And we were the very first gift shop in the country that he's ever been in.

- [Rob] Oh really?

- Yup, and he's in more now after we started showcasing his product.

And we had one young lady, she came into the store.

She had a plastic Ziploc bag and was holding it like this.

And I could see her walking back and forth.

And she was with an aide with her.

And after about 15 minutes she asked if I was in.

And I came out and said hello.

And she said, "I wanna know if you'll sell my beads."

And I said, "Well, let's put 'em out and see what everything looks like."

And she put 'em out very carefully.

And they were all beaded key chains and necklaces.

And come to find out, she lives in a group home for adults in Chillicothe.

This is how she passes her time.

It took her months to get the courage to come in and ask if we would sell these.

- [Rob] Oh really?

- She sells 'em for only like two or three dollars each.

And when she gets her check at the end of each quarter for the percentage of the sale, she donates it to charity, of course.

I mean, it's we meet-- - [Jim] Yeah, really remarkable.

- And she was so excited when I told her that we would sell them.

And her aide was with her and she's like, "This is the best day ever!"

So it means a lot.

It means a lot.

And everybody is, our staff, those that don't have disabilities, everybody's just a big family and a team.

And they all work together.

And it's not like, you know, oh I'm here to help you because you need help.

It's, we just all work together.

Whether you have a disability or you don't.

We don't focus on that at all.

We were blessed to get a grant that allows us to fund three onsite job coaches.

So we have people that are onsite that work with each junior associate and develop a plan for them.

So if you wanna learn, eventually, how to run the cash register.

Well, here's where we're gonna start.

And we're gonna grow to that point.

If you don't wanna work here for the rest of your life, but you have dreams to go somewhere else.

Well, how can we build skills to take those and then go to, you know, another place.

But it's a very special place.

It's a very unique place.

It's very unique because it's public.

So, anybody can come in at anytime and see people with disabilities working.

And contributing to society.

- If you're a potential employer, you can come in the door.

We have no idea who you are.

But you can come right in the door and you can kind of act like you're shopping.

You can look around and see what's going on with the junior associates and some of the training and some of the skills that they're performing.

And you know, just like with the other young man we mentioned, you know, he's in a full-time situation now.

So, there's opportunities out there.

We're just kind of a stepping stone, in some respects, for the future for a lot of these kids.

A lot of these adults that are looking for full-time employment too.

- We're really hoping that we can build it so it keeps going, and the farm too.

Long after we're gone.

And it's a place that keeps serving people and keeps celebrating them.

And then maybe it will be replicated elsewhere.

Maybe it will give other people hope to, you know, well, they can do it.

I mean we.

I've never run a business before.

- [Rob] It sounds like you are.

- Yeah!

And I mean, but I don't have... You know, you just kind of go for it.

- Well, that's what worries me a little bit.

Because we've talked about all the people that you're helping.

I worry about you two, right.

Because I mean, unless you've run a business, unless you've run organizations like that, you probably never understand the pressure of it.

And you guys must have a tremendous amount of pressure, a tremendous amount of stress to keep this thing going.

I know it means a lot to you, but man oh man.

Do you ever get a break?

- Yeah, we take breaks.

- We had breaks when the kids were younger.

You know, we could take breaks.

- We take breaks.

I don't know, we've got-- - We're used to it.

We're used to it.

- We're used to it and we've got a really strong faith, too, you know.

That's a big part of it.

And yeah, we're hoping to slow down eventually.

But right now-- - [Rob] I don't see it.

- Right now we've got a lot to get done.

- I know people like you, and you don't slow down.

It only increases.

- Retirement's a different word for us, that's for sure.

- Yeah.

- I had one of my best buddies years ago, he told me, he said, eh... We were talking about retiring and getting older in our age and everything.

And he said, nah, I don't think I'll ever retire.

He said, even an old bird's gotta look for a worm everyday.

Right?

So you gotta do something to keep yourself going.

And I don't know, we just keep going.

That's just who we are.

- Well, I hope you do take some time to recharge your batteries.

- Well, thank you.

- And yeah.

We saw you, you were out listening to one of the bands.

That's how Emily and I met you.

- Yes, yeah.

- Yes.

- Yep, because looking at, well, one of the bands that was at that event is gonna be playing at the farm.

- [Rob] Give 'em a plug.

- Still Shine.

Still Shine is gonna be at the farm and Sara Marie Dillard who was the MC there.

- [Jim] She MC'd there and was playing.

- She MC's for us.

She's amazing.

Our first concert on the farm is going to be an open mic.

So we're gonna be able to have-- - [Rob] Can I sing?

- Sure.

Gotta get there at one o'clock and signed up.

- [Rob] I physically cannot sing.

- I can't either.

That's okay.

- If people want to find everything that you do.

Social media, websites, where do they go?

- Facebook, we're on Facebook for Picket Fence Foundation and Blue Ridge Community Farm.

Instagram too.

Same names.

And then Picket Fence is PicketFenceFoundation.org.

And you can go right on there and order flowers and you should send Emily flowers.

That would be really nice.

- What the hell?

Just throwing me under the bus here.

- Just saying.

(chuckling) We'll give ya a really good deal.

(chuckling) - The dates of the concerts again?

- September 15th and... - The 22nd.

- 22nd.

- The 29th and October 6th.

We're doing four this year.

They're back to back Sundays.

We do have rain venues setup.

Just kind of keep an eye on our website for that announcement if it happens.

- [Rob] This year it's probably a good idea.

- Yeah!

For sure.

- But they're all family friendly.

2:00-5:00 in the afternoon.

BYOB, bring your own lawn chair or a blanket.

You know, sit on a hillside.

It overlooks a nice, beautiful valley down on the stage, so.

- And they go to the website or your Facebook to sign up?

- Yep.

- Do they RSVP or just show up?

- We like an RSVP.

It kind of gives us an idea.

- It's a polite thing to do.

- It's a polite thing to do.

(chuckling) - Well, Jim and Laura, I want to thank you guys for coming.

You're doing amazing things.

And you'll never know the true impact of what you guys have accomplished.

But you have made the world a better place and not a whole lot of people can say that.

So, I wanna thank you for not just coming on the show, but I wanna thank you for everything that you do.

- Thank you.

- So, thank you.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

(funky music) (funky music continues) (funky music) (funky music continues)